Home Project Cost Trends (2026)
Home-improvement prices kept climbing in 2026, though the pace cooled from the spikes of the early 2020s. Of the 13 projects we track, 12 are still rising year-over-year — led by water heaters and plumbing, where manufacturer increases and efficiency rules pushed costs up nearly 10%. Solar is the outlier: hardware got cheaper, but the expiry of the 30% federal tax credit made the net cost to homeowners jump. The table below ranks every project by how fast its national average is moving.
Year-over-year cost change by project
| Project | Trade | National average | Change (YoY) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water Heater Installation | Plumbing | $1,800 | ▲ up 9.4% |
| Whole-House Repipe | Plumbing | $6,000 | ▲ up 8.5% |
| Heat Pump | HVAC | $6,500 | ▲ up 5.5% |
| Termite Treatment | Pest Control | $1,200 | ▲ up 5.5% |
| Window Replacement | Windows | $9,500 | ▲ up 5.0% |
| AC Installation | HVAC | $7,500 | ▲ up 4.9% |
| Furnace Replacement | HVAC | $5,500 | ▲ up 4.8% |
| Roof Repair | Roofing | $1,150 | ▲ up 4.0% |
| Drain Cleaning | Plumbing | $300 | ▲ up 4.0% |
| Pest Control | Pest Control | $400 | ▲ up 4.0% |
| Window Repair | Windows | $450 | ▲ up 4.0% |
| Roof Replacement | Roofing | $11,000 | ▲ up 3.2% |
| Solar Panel Installation | Solar | $22,000 | ▼ down 2.2% |
National averages before local adjustment. “Change” is the latest year-over-year move in the relevant BLS producer-price category or industry benchmark.
How we measure cost trends
Each figure is anchored to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index for the materials and equipment in that project — asphalt shingles for roofing, HVAC & refrigeration equipment for heating and cooling, plumbing fixtures and domestic water heaters for plumbing — combined with skilled-trade wage growth. Pest-control figures follow National Pest Management Association estimates; solar reflects installed price-per-watt benchmarks and the federal Residential Clean Energy Credit. Multi-year trajectories on each project page are indexed estimates (2021 = 100) built from those category trends.
